LONDON -- The vast jamboree at the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg involved a huge amount of partying and junketing. The costs of travel and accommodations for delegations of ministers and officials were huge. Was it worthwhile?
It is tempting to say that it was largely a waste of money that could have been better spent on some of the projects and promises made at the last summit in Rio de Janeiro 10 years ago. An article in the London Times last Wednesday -- the final day of the summit -- said most of the 70-page agreement "is a combination of warm words, rehashed promises or targets that are vague or aspirations that are, in any practical sense, meaningless." There were certainly lots of high-flown statements of intent (they were hardly promises) with little certainty that any of the targets would be met within the set time frames.
Some observers from nongovernmental organizations, such as Greenpeace and Oxfam seem, to have been very disappointed by the amount of "hot air" poured out in cliches hour after hour by speakers at the conference. The contrast between the allegedly luxurious conditions, in which the delegates lived, and the appalling conditions in the nearby African slums left a bad taste in the mouths of many observers.